Oh
by Riku-Rocks
Summary: On his first night as a real Turk, Reno makes a few friends and a few discoveries about himself.


_Author's note: Please ignore my blatant disregard for canon. Also, for those of you familiar with Before Crisis and/or Last Order, Kilik is Two Guns, Fayte is Katana, Rod is Rod (old joke), Inara is Elena's older sister (Gun), and Cissnei is Shuriken (I know it is an alias in Crisis Core, but I like it). By the way, if you dislike the idea of Reno being anything other than heterosexual, don't read this. Thank you for reading and enjoy.  
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_Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Final Fantasy VII, Before Crisis, or Last Order.

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It was the evening that Reno, along with a few other Turklets, had completed his training and become a full-fledged Turk. Several of the Turks had come to like the young trainee, having met him during training exercises and tagalongs, and decided to take the redhead out for a drink at a tavern, which only served ShinRa employees.

While none had said anything to the boy either way, many of the senior Turk's had wondered if he would succeed in his training. Not one of them doubted the teen's skill, but many had questioned whether he had the disposition for Turk. However, their concerns were put to rest when the boy had been given a uniform and Turk identification card instead of a bullet between the eyes at that mornings meeting.

Therefore, after several hours of ceremony, paperwork, and a tour of headquarters, the newest member of the Turks could be found sitting at a table in the back with several of his newly official co-workers, with his shirt un-tucked and his collar open, the tie having been long since discarded.

After a couple of hours, the redhead could not help but notice that Rod, Kilik, and Fayte kept glancing towards the far corner of the tavern. "Is there something suspicious going on in the corner or what, yo?" Blue eyes scanned the area, not finding anything he would consider attention-worthy in the process. "Why do you guys keep lookin' over there?"

Each of the others grinned, and Kilik decided to have mercy on the rookie. "Look about five paces from the last stool…the blonde in the purple dress."

The teenager turned and found the described woman. She was fairly tall, with wavy blonde hair that fell to her hips -reaching almost to the hem of her dress in the process- and heavily lidded green eyes. The woman was quite fit, with just enough weight to allow for the curves expected of a female…or perhaps a bit more than expected, as the redhead discovered when the woman turned. He briefly spared a thought that it could not be comfortable to carry that much weight on your chest before noting the drink she was holding and the cigarette in the other hand.

Reno turned back to the others with a questioning look, "What about her?"

The grins fell from all three Turk's faces simultaneously, to be replaced by completely blank expressions. It was as though they had never before heard the words that the slight teen had spoken.

"Are you serious?" asked Rod.

"Yeah," the redhead's tone indicated that he thought the question stupid. "What's so interesting about her? She doesn't seem to be doin' anything entertaining."

Fayte simply shook his head and sipped his drink, Rod was staring at the younger Turk in shock, and Kilik smiled, releasing a sigh that seemed to hold a small laugh before turning to the others. "See? This is why they shouldn't take in Turklets so young…the kid has completely missed the finer pleasures in life. I mean look at him; he's completely clueless. That's just…ugh-"

Reno looked away while his new friend apparently searched for a word of appropriate proportion for describing the inhumanity of a world that allows an adolescent to be so distracted that he is uninterested in a woman who appears to be suffering from some sort of elephantitus in her chest. The redhead really could not see it as a problem. He was a competent helicopter pilot, proficient in several forms of martial arts and weaponry, and could pick just about any lock built by man, all by the age of fifteen…a worthy trade for any social shortcoming he may have, in his opinion.

Someone moved in the crowd, revealing what the scrawny Turk recognised as a SOLDIER uniform. Blue eyes trailed up a toned stomach and broad chest to meet with the brightest pair of violet eyes he had ever seen, framed with dark lashes a few stray strands of black hair. The man Reno did not realise he was staring at offered a pleasant smile to the younger male, which snapped the redhead back to reality. He replied to the handsome man's friendly nod with a grin and a small nod of his own.

The small Turk then returned his attention to his companions, whom he realised had not spoken since Kilik trailed off a moment before. Reno was marginally surprised to find all three Turks staring at him. Fayte's expression was neutral, save for a questionably arched eyebrow. Kilik was smirking; his eyes bright as he clearly fought the urge to laugh about something. Rod was looking at Reno with a slightly disturbed expression, as though the shorter male had a nasty cold with which he did not want to become inflicted. These reactions caused the redhead to frown in confusion. The frown quickly gave way to a small but fierce glare as Kilik lost the fight against his amusement and released a hearty chuckle, "What, yo?"

"Making a new friend, were you?" commented the former mob guard once his chuckling had eased. The shorter Turk glanced back to the SOLDIER, who was still watching him, oddly enough.

Reno drew his brows in irritation, knowing there was something going on here that he really should be catching. He had passed all of the tests on observational and deductive skills very well, after all.

The corner of Fayte's mouth quirked up into a minute grin, "I guess the blonde _woman_ just isn't put together to your liking."

Kilik broke into a fresh wave of chuckles when the katana wielder stressed the word woman slightly, and Rod looked like a rookie after his first day at hands-on triage training.

Reno turned his gaze back to the woman in question, who was now flirting shamelessly with a dark-haired man in a long blue coat. He still could not see what was so great about her, but then, he realised he never had found women to be particularly interesting…from a physical standpoint anyway. Girls like Cissnei and Elena were cool to talk to and fun to hang out with, but he had never had any romantic interest in them. Actually, the redhead suddenly realised that he had never had any romantic interest in any girls. Of course, he had been more than a little busy trying to survive in the slums up until a couple of years prior and had spent his time since then determined to prove himself worthy of Turk. Despite the logic in the explanations, the teen could not help but notice that they felt like excuses.

Blue eyes turned to the raven-haired SOLDIER at the bar, who had been joined by another young man. Both were very well built, obviously they spent plenty of time working out. Since coming to the upper plates to join Turk, the redhead had realised that he noticed the built of the men around him. At first, he had written it off, thinking that of course a pale, scrawny kid from the slums would notice the toned, large, and usually tanned (or at least a healthy fair shade when not) skin of all the people who used the same locker rooms as he did, who were naturally males. While logical, the teen also found this to feel like an excuse.

Then, the raven-haired man he was watching absently stroked his companion's side in a gesture that was far too slow and intimate to be strictly platonic.

"…Oh." Reno blinked and looked down at the table in front of him. Okay, so he obviously was attracted to men instead of women. He knew that was not unheard of, he had accidentally interrupted upon alleyway rendezvous of all sorts while looking for a place to sleep out of the elements as a kid. It clearly was not that unheard of on the upper plate as well, if all three of his companions had reached the conclusion that he was gay after seeing him check out only one man.

It only took a few more second for the redhead to decide that he was fine with this new discovery.

…And since at least one of his new co-workers was obviously less than comfortable with the idea, he also decided that he might as well have some fun with the information.

He looked up and smirked at his companions, "Well at least I picked a good job for my tastes, yo." He wagged his eyebrows once at their suddenly confused expression. "I get to share a locker room and get naked with the hottest bodies on the planet."

All four stared at each other in silence for a brief moment, before both Reno and Kilik broke into laughter. "Oh man, you should see your faces, yo…"

Fayte grinned lightly and shook his head at the younger Turks, while Rod released a nervous chuckle.

"Relax, man," commented Kilik. "I think he was teasing abut checking us all out in the locker rooms…besides, if he wasn't, I doubt your one of the guys he'll be looking at. He seems to like the big ones."

"Oh come on," Reno rolled his eyes. "Just because I like men doesn't mean I like _all _men. I have my standards, yo."

"Uh-huh," Rod nodded and then stiffly stood from the table. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. I think it's time to cut myself off…"

Reno frowned as the baton wielder all but fled the tavern. He got along well with the slightly older man, and hoped that they would still be able to be friends.

"Just give him a couple of days to wrap his head around it," stated Fayte, catching the teen's eyes and holding them with his own. "Then, he'll realise he's being an idiot and you two will be joining forces to give Verdot some more grey hairs in no time."

"Yeah," Kilik nodded his agreement. "Rod's cool…he just takes some time to adjust to things. You'll be fine, kid, don't worry."

Reno shrugged, "Hey, if he can't take it, he can't take it. I'm not cryin' over it, yo. As long as he can deal so we can both do our jobs, its okay." The redhead glanced across the room again. The blonde woman was sitting at the bar with a different man than before, and the two SOLDIERs had disappeared. "You know, I'm not really planning' on checking anyone out at work…it just, doesn't seem like a bright idea, yo?"

"Yeah, with a job like ours…one you can't get out of, it really is playing with fire," commented Fayte with an agreeable nod. "If it goes wrong, you're gonna burn or suffocate. There's no escaping." Reno and Kilik nodded, and then the youngest man noticed a large man with sunglasses and a shaven head approaching the table.

The redhead had seen, or more to the point, admired this man whenever he saw him around headquarters or the Turk training grounds before. The suit and badass air about him would have marked him as a Turk even if Reno had not seen him in places where only Turk had access. The small male could not help but wonder if it was his newly acknowledged preferences or simply the lighting in the tavern that made the older man look sexy enough for the redhead to actually feel himself blush as he reached the table.

"Shit," the teenager muttered and then met Kilik's eyes across the table as Fayte greeted the brawny Turk. "I'm gonna burn, yo." The gunman chuckled at the younger man's declaration as the bald man took Rod's vacated chair.

"I saw Rod on the way in," commented the large Turk once he had seated himself. Reno could not recall ever having heard the man speak before and he immediately thought that he could easily become drunk of the sound of his voice alone. "What's wrong with him?"

Fayte answered, which only made sense, seeing as how Kilik was clearly trying not to burst into hysterical laughter at both the reminder of the previous event and the youngest Turk's current blush. Reno was too busy studying the wood grain of the table and trying to fight down said flush. "Apparently he doesn't find the idea of young Reno here checking us out in the locker rooms all that appealing."

The bald man simply made a sound of acknowledgement and nodded. If the answer bothered him at all, he did not show it. The shift of white behind his shades suggested that he glanced at the redhead, who had paled slightly at the sword-wielder's reply. Then, he seemed to turn his attention back to Fayte. "I'm leading a small team out to the Gongaga area in the morning. Inara's already on board, but I need someone who's good at close combat."

The katana wielder nodded, "Should I meet you at the helicopter pad?"

The large Turk nodded as well, "At four. Reno?" He turned to the small redhead again, who looked up immediately. "I need a pilot. Meet me at the chopper at three for prepping."

The teen grinned, pleased that the older man had obviously heard enough about him to know his name and that he was a pilot. "You got it." He titled his head slightly as he thought of each time he had seen the man, usually with another senior officer. "You're Rude, right? I mean, that's your name, yo?"

"Mm-Hmm," the large man fixed his tie after he stood and offered a hand to the younger Turk, "Pleased to meet you."

Reno accepted the offered handshake, and was surprised when the larger hand did not crush his own; even though it gripped just tightly enough for it to be clear that it possessed the strength to do so. The younger Turk actually had to push away thoughts of how well his smaller hand seemed to fit into Rude's powerful one, "Same here."

Kilik arched an eyebrow as the two Turks pulled their hands back to their sides, noting that their fingers dragged along each other's briefly, and keeping contact for a just a few seconds longer than necessary. He glanced at Fayte, "Well if you guys have to get up that early, then we should really call it a night, don't you think?"

"Yes, we should," the older Turk replied as he stood and took out his wallet, noting that the two younger males were following suite. He held up a hand to Reno, "No, this was to celebrate your graduation, so you're off the hook this round." Kilik nodded his agreement and Reno grinned.

"Thanks, yo. I had a good time…this is a nice place." While it was what most would call a quiet, modest tavern, where ShinRa's finest went to relax and try to forget the stresses of their jobs, to Reno the quiet and calm atmosphere was very comfortable after being used to the rowdy, loud bars in the slums. It was also a lot cleaner then what he was used to, but everything on the upper plates seemed to be that way. While he glanced around the tavern one more time, Reno failed to notice that Rude was watching him thoughtfully.

Fayte, however, did not. "Rude? Are you heading home as well?" He glanced towards their newest co-worker when the bald man nodded. "Reno here lives in those little apartments just past your building; do you think you could walk with him? It's a bit out of the way for us."

"Oh, I don't need an escort or anything, yo," interjected the teenager as he looked between Rude and Fayte. "I'm fine on my own."

The large Turk shrugged slightly, "We're heading in the same direction anyway."

"Yeah," added Kilik. "You might as well walk together as far as Rude's building. No sense in going alone when you can get to know another one of the people you're going to have to trust with your life soon, kid."

Reno stared at the other Turk for a moment. While having his life in someone else's hands was not a new experience, he still was unused to the concept of actually being expected to trust others with it. He blinked and glanced at the others, wondering if that might actually work. Then, he shrugged casually. "Okay, let's go home."

Reno could not tell if the taller man enjoyed his company or not throughout the walk back to his apartment. The older Turk stayed beside him the entire time, never told him to shut up (which the teen was used to), and even spoke a few words that could have been intended to prompt the redhead to talk more during the lulls in the conversation…if it could be called that with how little the larger man was actually speaking. Still, the younger Turk could not help but wonder if he was annoying Rude.

Then Reno suddenly realised that they had reached his building, which was several buildings past Rude's own. "Hey, why didn't you tell me when we reached your building? You didn't have to go out of your way."

"I felt like walking," replying the brawny man simply.

"Oh, okay," the teen looked from the man beside him to his building and then back again. Feeling even more confused. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

The bald man nodded, "See you tomorrow." He then nodded his head towards the door, and did not head back to his building until Reno was already safely inside his own. The redhead noticed this and wondered if he should feel insulted or just give into the warm fuzzy feeling growing in his torso.

The redhead took the stairs up to his floor, hoping the movement would help clear his head, and once he had entered his small apartment and set his alarm for the next morning, he decided that maybe it had.

After all, he had suffered through worse then a burning before and survived. At least this time, he might get some good memories out of it too.

The teenager set his alarm for a little earlier before going to bed. He decided he would try ironing one of his suits in the morning.

The redhead sighed and snuggled into his warm bed, thinking that he was really going to enjoy life as a Turk.


End file.
